CAPITULUM XVI – GRAMMATICA

I. Deponent Verbs – Verba dēpōnentia

These verbs occur in all four conjugations and have the peculiarity of being passive in form but active in meaning. They are not conjugated in the active voice. They can be transitive or intransitive. They can take a direct object. They cannot be used so as to have a passive meaning, e.g., with an ablative of agent. They can be made into a present participle, with, of course, an active meaning. Here are the deponents in this chapter, categorized by conjugation:

Deponent	conj.	Latin meaning	English meaning	derivative(s)
cōnārī	1st	temptāre	try; attempt	. . .
cōnsōlārī	1st	solātio esse	console	console
laetārī	1st	gaudēre, laetus esse	be happy; rejoice	Letitia
intuērī	2nd	spectāre	look upon	intuition
verērī	2nd	timēre, metuere	fear	reverence
complectī	3rd	bracchia circum corpus pōnit	embrace	complex
ēgredī	3rd	exīre	to leave; go out	egress
lābī	3rd	cadere	slip down; fall	collapse
loquī	3rd	verba facere	speak; converse	elocution
proficīscī	3rd	abīre	set out; depart	. . .
sequī	3rd	venīre post	follow; come after	sequence
opperīrī	4th	exspectāre	to wait for	. . .
orīrī	4th	surgere, ascendere	rise	orient, oriental
fierī	irreg.	incipere esse	become; be made	. . .

II. Ablative Absolute

Another use of the ablative case is to indicate the conditions under which something occurs. It is not introduced by any preposition or conjunction, and the words in the ablative absolute clause do not have a grammatical connection with any other word, phrase or clause in the sentence. Absolūtus means “set free” or “released”. There is always a noun in the ablative case, which may be joined with an adjective, a participle or another noun. Examples:

A. Ventō secundō, nāvēs ē portū exeunt. With a fair wind, or when the wind is favorable, the ships go out of the port.

B. Mārcus fenestrā apertā dormit. Marcus sleeps with the window open, or when the window is open.

C. Sōle oriente nāvis ē portū egreditur multīs hominibus spectantibus. When the sun is rising, or at sunrise, the ship departs from the harbor while many individuals are looking on, or with many people looking on.

D. Sōle duce, gubernātor nāvem gubernat. With the sun as a guide, or the sun being his guide, the captain pilots the ship.

E. Itinere in partēs tropicas perfectō, domum regressus sum. With my journey into the tropics finished, I have returned home.

III. Partitive Genitive

A. Words like multum (much) and paulum (little) are frequently used with a partitive genitive to express ‘of what’ there is a large or small quantity.

B. Examples:

1. multum aquae = a lot of water; much water

2. multum pecūniae = a lot of money; much money

3. paulum cibī = little food (a small quantity of food)

4. paulum temporis = breve tempus

III. Paulō and multō

A. These adverbs are used to intensify or weaken a comparative.

B. Nāvis paulō levior fit, simul verō flūctūs multō altiōrēs fiunt. The ship becomes a little lighter, but at the same time the waves become much higher.

C. They can also be used with the adverbs ante and post, to indicate something happened shortly before or after (paulō) or a long time before or after (multō).

IV. Ablative of locus

A. Locō can be used without in to mean the place where something is happening.

B. With a verb of motion, locō can also be used without the preposition ā to indicate motion away from a place.

V. Pure i-stem nouns

A. There aren’t too many of these. They are characterized by having –im instead of –em as the accusative singular form and by having –ī instead of –e as the ablative singular form.

B. The two in this chapter are puppis, puppis, f. and Tiberis, Tiberis, m.

C. Examples:

1. Mēdus in puppim ascendit. (l. 67) Medus climbs up on the poop-deck.

2. Urbs Rōma nōn ad mare, sed ad Tiberim flūmen sita est vīgintī mīlia passuum ā marī. (l. 7-8) The city of Rome is not located on the sea, but on the Tiber river twenty miles from the sea.

VI. Masculine First Declension Nouns

A. Most of these are pretty common sense. If the noun denotes a traditionally (to a Roman) masculine role, it is masculine in gender even if its form is that of a first declension noun.

B. In this chapter we see nauta, nautae, m. – sailor.

C. A common mnemonic for this is the PAINTS acronym, which includes most of the commonest of these nouns:

Poēta, poetae, m. – poet; versifier

Agricola, agricolae, m. – farmer; agriculturist

Incola, incolae, m. – inhabitant

Nauta, nautae, m. – sailor

Tata, tatae, m. – daddy

Scriba, scribae, m. – clerk; secretary; scribe